Wednesday--EPCOT
So today was different from how we normally park tour. It is rope drop for us, as you know. And really, this isnt a challenge. We are all up and going by 8, so to be at a park by 9 is not a challenge. But this year Jeff was at his conference till noon, plus we wanted to do F&W and that is an afternoon/evening event. So the plan was to sleep in, head to breakfast, pick Jeff up at his conference at noon and head over then.
For breakfast, the kids and I had 10:00 (see? LATE) ADRs for 1900 Park Fair. Kelly is a Pooh fanatic. Fell in love with him at first sight (really) at her first trip to the parks at age 18 months. And it has been a love affair ever since. Every time she has to have a surgery or more testing, she says Poohy will get me through it. Kills me. But I am off topic. Normally we do the character meal at Crystal Palace. But I didnt want to do it again this year, and knowing we had a free morning, this seemed like a better option. Turned out great! The food over at the Grand Floridian is always good (lobster benedict, for crying out loud!). We saw Mary Poppins, Alice, Mad Hatter, Tigger and Pooh. Look at the picture on this childs face!
Overall, we all really liked the breakfast. My kids love, love, love character interaction. I will be sad if they ever feel that they have outgrown it.
Off to pick up Jeff for the rest of the day. Got to Epcot at 12-ish and we were pleasantly surprised that it was not as crowded as we had feared. Had to get FPs for Soarin, of course, so we did that first. Then while Jeff got something to eat the kids and I did the Figment ride (NOT lame and dont make fun of me! I ADORE Figment). Then over to the Seas with Nemo, then Spaceship Earth
I really do love the changes they have made to that ride. We basically walked on to all 3 rides.
Jeff joined us at this point and we had to watch the Jammitors. A trip to Epcot is not complete for my drummer boys without hanging with the Jammitors. We have seen them so many times that they KNOW usby name!
Then decided we would at least check out the line for the new thrill ride, The Sum of All Thrills. I totally expected it to be over an hour since it just opened the week before. Surprise! 15 minute wait. They are not advertising it AT ALL, so I think that really helped. Sadly, Kelly didnt meet the height requirements. So Riley, Cammie, and I did it will Jeff and Kel went and explored the rest of Innoventions. OMG, SO FUN. This is going to be a hit. It needs some tweaking, if you ask me, but they are definitely on to something. The kids liked it so much that we switched
Jeff took them again while Kelly and I got FPs for Test Track and then went and did the new money/piggy bank thing. SO CUTE. She adored it. Did it twice, in fact.
Plus we played with all of the other stuff in Innoventions (except the recycling thing
she was totally uninterested). But seriously, they have totally redone everything in those sections and it is great for younger kids. Kind of like a hands-on Childrens Museum, but Disneyfied.
Next, we decided to try another new thing
the Kim Possible experience where we do a scavenger hunt around World Showcase in order to save the world. The kids REALLY wanted to do this. So we signed up, got our Kimmunicator and were told to be in Norway at 2pm. Since it was a bit before 2, we decided to catch Honey I Shrunk the Audience. This was new for the kids because we always thought it might be too much (the whole snake thing, you know
). And you know, it WOULD have been fine. But there were two 13-ish girls sitting directly behind us who screamed and screamed and screamed bloody murder through the scene with the mice, the lion, and the snake. They really freaked Kelly outpissed me off to no end.
Finally, it was time to head to WS and get down to business at F&W. The plan was to have the kids do the Kim Possible thing while Jeff and I strolled WS. This way, they had something to do while we hopped from kiosk to kiosk. Sadly, the Kim Possible thing isnt quite what we expected. While the kids LOVED it (and we would do it again under different circumstances), it all takes place in just ONE country. Then you can go and do other countries after you finish the first one. So we spent a half hour in Norway doing the huntand again, it was cutebut it also meant that we were stuck in Norway and we couldnt really do F&W. Jeff was NOT happy. The only thing he really wanted from this trip was to do F&W and it wasnt working out how he had envisioned it.
Finally, we saved Norway from the bad guys and Jeff and I could go drinking. Which we did. And Jeff started to bounce back and get rid of his ugly mood. Overall, though, I would say that this years F&W is not as good as years past.
After walking WS three times,
and enjoying about 7 wines as well as some Sake in Japan (and yes, we got the sake glasses with our names written on them in Japanese), we decided we would head out by way of Soarin and Test Track, since we had FPs for both. Neither one disappointed, as always. I always love this Hidden Mickey in TT (or as Jeff calls ita blatantly obvious Mickey)
Back to SSR for a movie and bed.
No pool today! Shocking!